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7 Things Happy Employees Do Differently

When was the last time you jumped out of bed, excited that it was Monday morning, ready to head to a job you couldn’t wait to get to? It’s been that long, huh? If your jump out of bed looks more like a stop, drop and roll, it’s time to think about some different strategies for injecting a little happiness back into your day.

After I burned out toward the end of my law practice, I knew there had to be a better way. I’ve spent the past four years studying, teaching, and training stress management techniques and resilience-building skills to thousands of different professionals, and here are specific things happy employees do differently:

They job craft. Employees rarely land the perfect job, but they use specific strategies to create a better work environment. Job crafting is the process employees use to increase job satisfaction, engagement, resilience, and thriving at work. Happy employees have the autonomy to customize their jobs by changing tasks and interactions with others in order to maximize their strengths and passions (Berg, Dutton, & Wrzesniewski, 2008).

They have hope. Happy employees have hope, and that translates into bottom-line benefits for business. Companies lose billions of dollars each year when employees fail to show up for work. In a study of mechanical and electrical engineers at a Fortune 100 tech company, the high-hope engineers, on average, missed less than three days of work in a twelve-month period. The low-hope engineers missed, on average, more than ten days of work in that same period of time (Avey, Patera, & West, 2006). Hopeful employees are also productive. According to Dr. Shane Lopez, “Hopeful salespeople reach their quotas more often; hopeful mortgage brokers process and close more loans; and hopeful managing executives meet their quarterly goals more frequently” (Lopez, 2013).

They leverage humor and positive emotion. Humor builds positive emotion and helps reduce feelings of anger, depression, and anxiety (McGhee, 2010). Positive emotions also predict increases in both resilience and life satisfaction (Cohn et al., 2009). As a former practicing attorney, I used to keep a book of lawyer jokes on my desk for days when I took the world way too seriously.

They manage pessimistic thinking. Optimistic thinkers think in a very specific way when setbacks happen. Specifically, they are solution-oriented and see where they have control and/or influence, know that the adversity won’t last forever and “this too shall pass,” and they compartmentalize well so that the setback doesn’t bleed over into other areas of their life (Seligman, 2006). More importantly, optimistic thinkers are healthier (Cohen et al., 2003), happier, and less depressed (Abramson, 2000) than their pessimistic thinking counterparts.

They have self-efficacy. Knowing that you can manage life’s challenges effectively and produce results is a pillar of resilience, and when employees are at their resilient best, they are more confident, creative, and open-minded (Skodol, 2010). As a result, they have the confidence to solve problems and pursue tough assignments and challenging roles.

They focus on the upside of stress. Health psychologist Dr. Kelly McGonigal discussed the latest stress research in her June 2013 TED talk, “The Upside of Stress.” Specifically, new research shows that how you think about your stress response actually has a huge impact on your health. According to Dr. McGonigal, people who learned to view their stress response as helpful (rather than harmful) to performance were much less stressed, less anxious, and more confident.

They stay the course. Grit is perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Researchers studied an incoming class of cadets at West Point and found that the group who was most likely to make it through the training was not more athletic, well-rounded or smarter - they were grittier; in fact, grit was a better predictor of success for these cadets than IQ or standardized test scores (Duckworth, et al., 2007). Gritty people pursue goals with passion, don't back down from challenges, don't allow a failure to define who they are as a person, and simply put, don't quit. You can measure your grit using the Grit Scale found at www.authentichappiness.org.

Happy employees have developed a specific set of strategies over time that causes them to work differently, and we need that in today’s workplace. The most recent Gallup survey on employee engagement showed that 50% of workers report being “not engaged” while another 20% report being “actively disengaged” (Sorenson & Garman, 2013). We can do so much better than that.

Paula Davis-Laack, JD, MAPP, is an internationally-published writer and travels the globe as a stress and resilience expert. She has coached and trained over one thousand professionals on how to build their stress resilience and prevent burnout. Paula is available for speaking engagements, training workshops, media commentary, and private life coaching – contact her at paula@pauladavislaack.com or visit her website at www.pauladavislaack.com.

I am a happy employee, so most everything in this article, I can relate with. There are few ideas in the article I want to comment on, and several ideas I’d like to add.
To piggy back on leveraging humor and positive emotion, this is ideal especially if you are a manager because humor and positivity is spread downwardly to employees, and even sometimes it spreads up to upper management. Employees subconsciously tend to mimic their manager’s emotions. So if a manager is typically angry, depressed, or negative, it will reflect in the employees’ work. Me personally, I bring a lot of humor into the work place. It tends to promote a happy, relaxed work environment to my employees and my management.
Regarding focusing on the upside of stress, I believe learning how to manage stress is very helpful. We all own our stress; therefore we are all responsible for it. If we own our stress, we can define what stress is specifically to ourselves. They way I control my stress is defining stress as: not working as hard as I can to accomplish a goal or task. No matter what is assigned to me, no matter how complicated the task, I work as hard as I can in a given amount of time. If the goal or task gets accomplished, that is great, if not, as long as I know I worked as hard as I could, that is all I can do. Open and honest communication with my manager is important, especially when reporting progress. This keeps me happy at work.
Staying the course is also very important. Many times, stress stems from the shock of initial workload on a new job. Many times people are overwhelmed, and quit before they have leaned the job. Getting over that initial learning curve (which could take several years) can be stressful. Staying on the course, learning the job until its second nature, will eventually produce a happier employee.
In my personal opinion, being happy on the job starts at home (some people think the opposite). If one is not happy at home, they are not going to be happy on the job. For all the married men out there, “happy wife, a happy life.” If I know I have a happy place to come home to, it helps me to be happy at work. If one is not happy at work, I would start by making home and personal life happy, and then focus on the job.

There are three things that I think it is really make the happy employees differently.
They leverage humor and positive emotion. As the author mentioned,” Humor builds positive emotion and helps reduce feelings of anger, depression, and anxiety (McGhee, 2010). “To be positive at the workplace can not only make yourself enjoy the work but also cheer up the other co-workers.
They have hope. If the employees can got the hope from company and they would do the best and make effort at work. For example, if they could have more chances on their promotions and they could be motivated and make things effectively. People can do the best from the competition,because they know what could they get after they achieve their goals at work.
They stay the course. In many companies, they offer their employees opportunities to go back to school. It is really a good policy that to help the company and the employees on their future. Some people might think go back school might effect their work,contrary,it would help them to learn more and do a better job in the future. My ex job provide us a chance to go back to school and the company would pay for the tuition. Some of my co-workers went back to school and they still can do their best at work, though it's not easy for them to work and study in the same time,they believed it would change their future.

Having happy employees can be a rare commodity in this world, but every company should strive to make every employee happy. According to a Gallup survey, Americans now feel worse about their jobs and work environments than ever before. Employees of all ages and income levels are unhappy and detached from what they do.
Happy employees are becoming an important and growing business concern. Companies are beginning to realize the benefits of having not just satisfied and engaged, but happy. “When employees feel that the company takes their interest to heart, then the employees will take company interests to heart,” says Dr. Nelson, a clinical psychologist, best selling author and business trial consultant.
According to a joint research study from Wall Street Journal and the iOpener Institute, happier employees help their colleagues 33% more often than unhappy ones. Not only that, but happy employees also achieve their goals 31% more often, and are 36% more motivated in their work. There are very few business metrics that are not impacted by how happy employees’ are- health, safety, productivity, absenteeism, customer service, profitability.
Employees need to know that their work is meaningful. Managers can help ensure that employees’ are happily engaged at work. The manager’s ability and willingness to facilitate workers’ accomplishments by acknowledging progress is often followed by employee’s joy and excitement about their work.

I think these 7 ways are quite useful in our work and life.
It’s common that unhappy employees are unmotivated and uninspired to work at their potential. Even your best performers will leave when they are unhappy.

Many companies do not make the effort to keep employees happy because of the assumed costs. However, most employees are not looking for expensive perks to encourage them. At least in my work, I expect get more than I should get. They will be driven with a little recognition, support, and thankfulness. So for managers, I think they might spend time to listen to their employees.

When stress in the workplace interferes with our ability to work, cares for ourselves, spend time with family or friends or manage a personal life then it’s time to take action. Start by paying attention to our health, both physically and emotionally. When we take the time to care for ourselves we become stronger and more resilient to stress, thus we need to become better equipped to manage stress at work.
Even making small changes today can lift our mood and increase our energy & determination. Take things one step at a time and as we make more positive choices in our life, we’ll soon notice a difference in our stress levels, both at home and at work.

This blog discuss about what kind of different things the employee should do to be happy. So there are many ways through which one can make himself happy like making yourself satisfied with the job which can be done by taking different work, interacting with others to increase the strength and make the work environment congenial. And with this thing they need to have hope which can lead to them to very distinct place.
Feeling happy at time of work is very necessary to get the productivity, for this the employees can add humor to their life which will make them feel good. The employees need to have the clear approach of doing work, they should focus on the productivity not on remaining busy. Work makes one selves happy if that work will give some output. So the employees should do work with objective of getting some output.
At the time of working one should keep this thing clear into their mind that the they should arrange the work in a very simple manner and distributing the whole work into the small parts through which can make it simple. The employee should learn from their mistakes and should start improving continuously which can be done by tracking their progress. And one more thing which makes them by having pessimistic thinking.

I believe that these 7 strategies to being a happy employee are very true and effective. Here is a short outline of what this article meant to me:
I think you are happy if you are doing something you know your good at. (#1 They job craft)I think that if you truly believe that you are making a difference and changing the world in a positive manner you will be happier. (#2 They have hope)
I think being positive and laughing at yourself sometimes will make you happier. (#3 They leverage humor and positive emotion)
I think that if you feel that problems will come and go, see the glass half full instead of empty you will be happier. (#4 They manage pessimistic thinking) I think that if you truly believe in yourself and have positive self esteem you will be happier.
(#5 They have self efficacy) I think if you manage your stress well you will be happier. (#6 They focus on upside of stress) I think that if you work hard at never giving up you will be happier. (#7 They have grit)
This was an article not only for employees to become happier at their workplace; but for anyone that needs a happier life.
These are seven life lessons that anyone can adopt in their own lives. If you practice these principles it will spill over into all areas of life, not just at work.

Happy employees are fortunes to companies. They can bring lots of benefits such as improving service quality, attracting potential customers and promoting sales. A capable manager should know how to cultivate happy employees. On one hand, the company should create a comfortable environment—such as harmonious workplace, approachable management—to make its employees happy. On the other hand, employees should master some skills to make themselves happy.
This article talks about 7 things that a happy employee always does. I have an empathy with some points of view. After I graduated from the university, I got a job in a state-owned real estate company. I sometimes had to leave home and work in nonlocal cities for several month. Because I was responsible for engineering management, I had to go to the building sites and stayed there many hours, even though the weather is extremely hot. Frankly speaking, such work environment was not comfortable at all. However, I and my colleagues of my age all had a hope that it was a good opportunity to get more precious knowledge and work experience. It was the best time to accumulate knowledge in the first few years after I got a job.
After work, the happiest thing is I had many activities with my colleagues. Because we all lived in the company’s apartment, it was convenient to hang out with them and play together. At this time, I forgot exhaustion and stress. I guess I have resilient character because I can cast off the negative emotions quickly and find confidence.

Happiness in the workplace has been linked to increases in productivity in countless studies. I think the main things that make a happy employee are flexibility and hope.

I had a boss one time that was an extreme micromanager and I basically had to clear everything I did with him first. There was no flexibility to my work life and it made me hate going into work. Fortunately it was just a summer job because I definitely wouldn’t have worked out long term.

Hope is the biggest factor in making a happy employee. As long as there is hope, all other problems can be minimized because the employee believes things will get better. Once the hope is gone, I believe an employee will become unproductive and stop caring about the quality of his or her work.

This article is very helpful for both employees and managers to think deeply about their daily work and daily lives.

These seven points divide normal employees and happy employees successfully. In my opinion, what is the most important strategy for people to become happy employees is increasing their Emotional Intelligence by learning methods. As the author said in this article, "happy employees have hope", "people who learned to view their stress response as helpful", "gritty people pursue goals with passion, don't back down from challenges, don't allow a failure to define who they are as a person, and simply put, don't quit", the point is these people know more and do better when they have some negative emotions.

Besides learning more about increasing Emotional Intelligence, there are three elements I think will help people become happy employees.

1. Have a good leader.
A good leader is necessary for a happy job because a good leader will do a lot to improve the situations of mismatches on one hand while he will utilize his humor and intelligence to building a relaxing atmosphere for his subordinates on the other hand. Although not everyone is lucky enough to have a good boss from the beginning of the job, even has a tyrant at first, we could try to like them by more communication and specific methods.

2. Have positive motivations.
Achievements can help us to have happier job and life. I used to conclude my progression everyday in my job, even though it was 1% or less progression every day. This process helped me to gain power and happiness for tomorrow and helped me to expect for a promotion.

3. A happy family is necessary.
There is an old Chinese saying: A harmonic family leads to a successful business. Family can always bring people energy and hope. For example, my father often tells me that our family gives him energy for achieving success in his business. I am now also working hard for my wife's better life and for my daughter's better future. They make me work more happily.